Davie Considering Water Consolidation

September 11, 1990|By BOB FRENCH, Staff Writer

DAVIE -- Town officials are considering consolidation of five water districts into one utility service to ensure all residents receive water, including those who now rely on private wells in western Davie.

``We`d like to provide our own service to residents out west,`` said Daniel Colabella, director of utilities. ``The town`s residents should be served by the town`s Utility Department.``

Requests by western residents coupled with declining groundwater because of the drought and growth has prompted the town to consider a plan to bring public water to areas that do not have access to it.

``Everyone in town should have public water,`` said Town Administrator Bob Mearns, who was instructed last week to begin the study.

One plan that officials are considering would create a special assessment district in areas without public water. Property owners in the district would pay for the cost of digging up roads, laying pipe and making water connections.

The town would purchase the water plants and equipment from the four utility districts and operate a system for the entire municipality. The cost of running a townwide system would be spread among all of the customers, he said.

Creating a single system would eliminate the current piecemeal approach to providing water service to western areas, Mearns said.

Other advantages to the consolidated service include: uniform pricing, consistency in service, billing and regulation for users and better control of growth.

The town is planning to get reports on the cost of acquiring the utilities and cost to customers, Mearns said.

For the past 10 years, the town has been negotiating off and on to purchase the Ferncrest system, said General Manager Bob Salerno.

``The owners would be interested in selling. If the deal is right they would sell,`` Salerno said.

Davie officials said Sunrise no longer allows customers to hook into its water system without obtaining sewer service as well, which raises the overall hookup cost. It probably will take a year to complete a study on the cost to take over the Sunrise system, Colabella said.

Davie`s Utility Department supplies water to about 6,000 customers in the eastern part of the town, operates two water plants and has seven wells. Davie`s water plants can process up to 7.4 million gallons of water a day, but the plants currently treat only 3.4 million gallons each day.

There are western neighborhoods that still rely on private wells. While water is still available for those wells, which are about 60 feet deep, town officials are concerned that future droughts could lower water levels. A lower groundwater level could also allow saltwater and other impurities to leach into well water, Colabella said.